AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY re-reviews

I'd argue that Murray's in the minority with his opinion, particularly on Rashad's performance.

Almost every person I've read of or spoken to who has seen the show since she joined the company has raved about how incredible Rashad is and how that dynamic has spread to the rest of the cast.

I'm curious what other critics (particular Brantley of The Times) think.

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Updated On: 6/11/09 at 08:06 PM

Weirdly enough, John Cullum is the only person in the current cast (excluding Phylicia, who I have yet to see so I can't say) I absolutely cannot stand. And he's the only one Murray seems to be 100% sold on.

I haven't heard a single negative review so I don't know what "most people" is supposed to mean.

Cullum is a weak link in the chain, but if people can get through the first 15 minutes without leaving then they're in for a real ride.

I haven't seen the show since last summer, but I certainly noticed that most of the fights, arguments, humor seemed very calculated. And I know a number of people who've said the same thing.

I went in expecting to hate Rashad, because while I loved her in A Raisin in the Sun, I thought she was playing a caricature of herself in Cymbeline and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I was very happy to be proven wrong, and there was no racial or P.C. motivation for my doing so.

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/06-2009/august-osage-county_19495.html

Variety is a Very Positive, echoing the belief that the show is at the top of its game:

"In her Broadway roles in recent years, Phylicia Rashad has cornered the market in formidable matriarchs: the strong-willed traditionalist suspicious of change in "A Raisin in the Sun"; the 287-year-old spiritual guide in "Gem of the Ocean"; the scheming ice queen in "Cymbeline"; the self-deluding Big Mama, in deep denial about her marriage and impending widowhood, in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." But no role has taken her further from warm, sensible, no-nonsense Clair Huxtable than Violet Weston, the pill-popping Oklahoma terminator who serves as the motor for a family's disintegration in Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner "August: Osage County."

More than midway through its second year in New York, this epic-scaled, acid-tongued comedy-drama has been showing signs of fatigue at the box office, for which producers hope the nontraditional casting of Rashad will provide some relief. Oprah Winfrey's glowing Twitter assessment after catching a recent performance has already helped pique curiosity. But regardless of how much mileage is still left in the hit Broadway transfer of this Steppenwolf Theater Company production, the show remains crackling entertainment, an edge-of-the-seat roller-coaster ride through the ultimate in family dysfunction that has lost none of its humor or horror.

Some of the substitute casting has brought subtle changes to the production's tone, most notably that of Rashad and Elizabeth Ashley, who is loud-mouthed blowsiness personified as Violet's tactless sister, Mattie Fae..."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940455.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

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Updated On: 6/11/09 at 10:54 PM

Letts was in a hard position, I think. The Prologue is so significant to the whole play yet I feel it really does start the play in a very slow, almost dull place. I remember the first time I saw the play, I thought the beginning was very boring--even if it does have its funny moments. And I didn't see Cullum either time I saw the play.
All their three Violets have gotten great reviews, yet I didn't hear the same about Johanna Day (many mixed reviews, some great, some not so great). I think either Barbara is the toughest role to play, or it's just not as rich for an actor as Violet--don't really know which one it is. I just know that Amy Morton's shoes are insanely hard to fill and the Tony should have won to her.
I can't wait to see the show again. I might go to NY this summer and see the show for the third time. It sounds like Rashad is fantastic.

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The NY Post is very positive with ***1/2 out of ****:

"...But Rashad stops short of making Violet sympathetic. She spreads toxicity slowly but surely, like oil leaking out of a fractured tanker -- whereas Dunagan spat out nihilistic poison in pyrotechnic displays. I personally preferred the over-the-top, operatic viciousness of Dunagan's Vi, but Rashad's slurred intimations make a compelling case for the play's depths.

This approach also nicely complicates the relationship between Vi and her eldest daughter, Barbara -- especially because Barbara is played by the sensational Amy Morton, who can simultaneously make you laugh and break your heart.

When Barbara roars up to take control over her mother, it feels almost like overkill against mentally deranged Vi. When she did it against Dunagan, you wanted to stand and cheer.

...

Together, they all make "August" Broadway's most gripping dysfunction junction."




Full Review

Updated On: 6/12/09 at 10:58 AM

I didn't notice a single line of dialogue being altered.

Did the NY Times choose not to re-review the piece?

"Murphy; however, needs to be reigned in. Her performance as Ivy has gone so wildly over the top that she switches between two levels: calm deadpan and incoherent high-pitched screeching. Whenever her emotions are vaulted, her voice jumps an octave and lines are lost. It's glaringly inappropriate especially when juxtaposed with the more nuanced work of her scene partners."

Hit the nail right on the head.

The NY Daily News had a blurb on it in today's paper; they gave it a Rave.